Chapter 257

The bamboo door creaked open. A dim oil lamp approached from the distance.

Qi Bai set down the lamp and laid the food out in front of the sub-beastman.

Throughout the process, the person across from him—Sang Xu—remained motionless, not even glancing at the food Qi Bai had brought.

To prevent Sang Xu from realizing that Ji had already confessed, Qi Bai had come to the mountain cave where she was imprisoned before dawn on the day after the Mating Festival ended.

Before coming, Qi Bai had already heard about Sang Xu’s condition from Ma Ling.

Ever since being separated from Ji, this sub-beastman had completely withdrawn into her own world. She neither responded nor resisted. If Ma Ling hadn’t heard her speak before, she might have assumed Sang Xu was mute.

Qi Bai ignored her silence and placed a small bone knife in front of her. “I’m guessing this bone knife belongs to you.”

“You might be wondering why I came here so early, alone, while everyone else is gone, just to bring this bone knife to you.”

Sang Xu still gave no reaction, but Qi Bai knew she was listening.

“Because this bone knife is very important to me. It might be the only thing that can prove my identity.”

Sang Xu raised her head and saw, under the lamplight, the young man whose expression kept shifting—and in his hands, two nearly identical bone knives.

Her pale gray pupils trembled slightly. She carefully studied Qi Bai’s face, then looked at the unusual hair color that set him apart from ordinary beastmen.

“Heh...” After a moment, a rasping sound like broken bellows came from Sang Xu’s throat. “No wonder…”

Her expression grew dazed, as if she were seeing another person through Qi Bai.

Qi Bai’s face lit up. “You have this bone knife too—are you from my tribe?”

“Don’t be afraid. They only locked you up because you’re from the Sangmeng Tribe, but that doesn’t matter anymore.” Qi Bai spoke quickly. “I’m the high priest of this tribe—everyone listens to me. I promise you, you’ll be able to live freely in the Heishan Tribe. I can take you out right now.”

Sang Xu reached for the bamboo tube filled with water. But instead of drinking, she moistened her fingers with it and wiped the dust from her face.

In a hoarse voice, she asked, “You weren’t born in the Heishan Tribe, were you?”

Qi Bai nodded and answered honestly, “I was born in a small tribe in the East called the Wind Leopard Tribe. I came here during the great flood.”

“Wind Leopard Tribe…” Sang Xu repeated the name under her breath. A flash of hatred flickered across her face, well-hidden beneath her messy hair. “So close to Sangmeng…”

She asked, “Did your father… leave you anything else?”

Qi Bai’s expression shifted slightly. “Only this small bone knife.”

Sang Xu chuckled softly. Her dry, raspy laugh echoed eerily in the cold cave, creating a chilling atmosphere. “This bone knife is indeed mine. Those who own this kind of bone knife all come from the same place.”

Qi Bai’s eyes widened. He pressed on, “What place?”

Sang Xu replied, “Bring the knife a bit closer. I want to take a better look.”

Qi Bai tightened his grip on the handle and moved one of the bone knives forward. But at that moment, the seemingly frail Sang Xu suddenly grabbed his wrist with brutal force.

“What are you doing?” Qi Bai struggled, but he couldn’t break free from her grip. “Who was my father? Where did you get this bone knife?”

“Your father? He deserved to die!” Sang Xu let out a strange laugh. “And you can die with him!”

Before she could finish, the bamboo door at the cave’s entrance slammed open. A figure dashed in and, in the blink of an eye, separated the two.

Lang Ze pulled Qi Bai protectively into his arms. But Qi Bai’s face had already gone pale. “No... this is bad…”

The bone knife that had been in Qi Bai’s left hand was now in Sang Xu’s hand.

Made from the spine of a xuan-niao (mystic bird), the knife was razor-sharp. In a split second, it was plunged into Sang Xu’s own abdomen.

Sang Xu coughed up blood and grinned maniacally through her twisted expression. “So much for you coming alone... you were lying. Just like him. You’re all liars…”

The cave fell silent once more.

Lang Ze looked down at the sub-beastman on the ground with disgust. “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”

Qi Bai had been on guard against Sang Xu the whole time. He just hadn’t expected that grabbing his wrist was only a ruse—her true target had always been the bone knife in his left hand.

Qi Bai shook his head slightly and frowned. “My father didn’t die in a hunting accident.”

Although Lang Ze hadn’t followed him into the cave, he had stayed right outside the door and heard the whole exchange.

Sang Xu hadn’t asked how Qi Bai’s father had died. Instead, she had immediately asked whether he had left anything else behind. Clearly, she had already known Qi Bai’s father was dead.

But Qi Bai had lived in the Wind Leopard Tribe his whole life, and had never met anyone from outside. So Sang Xu’s source of information was highly suspicious.

Lang Ze nodded. “She’s connected to them, no doubt.”

Qi Bai paused in thought. “There’s something else strange.”

“What is it?”

Qi Bai carefully recalled his conversation with Sang Xu and said with certainty, “I never told her anything about my father. But she instantly recognized this bone knife as his.”

Qi Bai traced the spine of the knife. “Either there are only two bone knives like this in the world, or…”

“Or there’s something special about you—some kind of mark that made her immediately connect you to your father,” Lang Ze said.

The same thought struck both of them: Qi Bai’s white hair.

Qi Bai’s heart sank. Could it be that his fur and hair color wasn’t just simple albinism?

As they were deep in thought, Niu Xin suddenly burst into the cave, panicked. “Qi Bai, Lang Ze—Ji is dead.”

The bodies of Ji and Sang Xu were placed side by side.

The bone knife had been pulled from Sang Xu’s abdomen. Her blood had already stopped flowing in the cold winter air.

Unlike her, Ji’s corpse was clean. His eyes were wide open, his face still frozen in the terror of his final moments.

Ji hadn’t been alone when he died. Niu Xin and Niu Cheng had been with him, watching as he ate.

Niu Cheng spoke quietly, “He got a bit more food these past two days. This morning, Niu Xin and I brought him his meal like usual. At first everything seemed fine. But then, he just froze mid-bite.”

Niu Xin still looked shaken. Clearly, he’d never encountered anything like this before. “I—I just touched him, and he collapsed. I swear, I didn’t use any force…”

Qi Bai and Lu Teng squatted down to examine Ji’s body—but there wasn’t much to check. There were no external wounds. It was as if he had just inexplicably… died.

But Qi Bai and Lang Ze both knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. Why would Ji drop dead so conveniently right after Sang Xu’s death?

Maybe it was the earlier scolding over the Gu Jin incident, but Lu Teng no longer showed fear at strange events. Instead, he calmly helped Qi Bai examine the body.

After a while, Lu Teng shook his head. He had studied medicine under Lu Jian, the old priest, for years—but this was his first time examining a corpse. Unsurprisingly, he found nothing.

Qi Bai hadn’t expected much. On the beastman continent, there were barely any doctors—let alone coroners. Calling Lu Teng over was just a gamble. That he couldn’t determine the cause wasn’t surprising.

Qi Bai stood up and asked Ma Ling, “What about the Sangmeng tribe’s younglings?”

Ma Ling replied, “Still breathing.”

In other words: barely alive. The few remaining cubs were already clinging to life.

Lang Ze waited until Qi Bai finished questioning her, then said, “Take them out. Make sure they’re dead for real.”

Ma Ling nodded solemnly. “I’ll handle it personally. If they’re still alive now, they’ll be dead soon enough.”

There was something deeply wrong with all the people they had brought back from the Sanghuo Tribe. Ma Ling didn’t trust anyone else to deal with them—she would do it herself.

With those matters handed off, Qi Bai and Lang Ze descended the stone steps.

The sky was beginning to lighten, though the sun hadn’t risen yet. Everything looked gray and heavy.

Qi Bai shared a few of his theories. “It could be a congenital disease. In my homeland, there were illnesses that caused people to die without warning. But even those usually had some pattern—emotional agitation, intense activity… Ji’s case doesn’t seem to match.”

It also couldn’t be poison. Both Ji and Sang Xu’s meals were handed directly to their guards from Hu Xue. No one else

had contact with their food.

“In my homeland, there were also legends of Gu insects. For example, if both Sang Xu and Ji had a type of linked parasitic worm—if Sang Xu had the mother and Ji had the child—then when the mother died, the child would die too.”

After seeing how the City of Bones used implants to control slaves, Qi Bai no longer found this kind of theory far-fetched.

It was a reminder: even though the beastman continent lacked advanced technology, it still held many hidden dangers. They couldn’t afford to lower their guard.

Still, it was clear Sang Xu’s control over Ji hadn’t been simple—otherwise, the guards around her wouldn’t have been fine. Qi Bai didn’t believe she cared enough to spare anyone.

Lang Ze listened as Qi Bai’s speculations grew increasingly wild and let out a chuckle. “Well, at least it wasn’t divine punishment.”

Qi Bai rubbed his nose. “If the beast gods really wanted to punish us, I doubt they’d wait until now. Thankfully, we got what we needed out of Ji. That’s probably all someone like him could’ve known anyway.”

Lang Ze asked, “Are you scared?”

Qi Bai tilted his head. “Scared of what?”

Lang Ze looked down at the beastmen gathering at the foot of the mountain. “Secrets like this… they’re worse than death. Otherwise, Sang Xu wouldn’t have died without saying a word.”

Qi Bai replied, “I’m not scared. If the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up. I’m safe as long as I stick with you.”

He bumped his head against Lang Ze’s shoulder and teased, “Let’s go, Lord City Master. Time to get back to work.”